


Changes

by Melime



Series: Not the one you lost [16]
Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Established Relationship, F/F, Femslash Big Bang Monthly Challenge, Implied/Referenced Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-30
Updated: 2017-04-30
Packaged: 2018-10-25 15:29:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10767108
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Melime/pseuds/Melime
Summary: Things changed between them, of course they had to change, as the nature of their secret changed.





	Changes

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into Português brasileiro available: [Mudanças](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10767111) by [Melime GreenLeaf (Melime)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Melime/pseuds/Melime%20GreenLeaf)



> Written for [Femslash Big Bang](http://femslashbigbang.tumblr.com/)'s April monthly challenge, "changes".

Things changed between them, of course they had to change, as the nature of their secret changed. Now, the fact that they were living together was widely known, expected even, or rather, demanded, even though the true nature of their relationship remained a secret. Also, they didn't have to hide their feelings for each other from their daughter anymore, but Cassandra didn't live with them either, as both her mothers insisted that she shouldn't take a break from college to move back home just because of Janet. It was better that she stayed away as she got used to having her mother back, at any rate.

At times like this, it was hard to remember that they originated in different universes, and that by all logic they should never have met, let alone fallen in love with each other. After all, they were openly sharing the same roof, after so many months of keeping their relationship a secret, with Sam visiting Janet's reality as often as she could without risking getting caught.

Of course, this happiness came at a high cost. First, they had to lose each other, then, Janet had to lose her daughter and her entire world, and Sam had to violate his friends' trust and place her own world in danger, finally, they had to find a way for Janet to be allowed to live as if she was native to that universe, and had to tell Cassandra that her mother was back, or at least an alternate version of her, that had lost her daughter and was as eager to see any version of her alive and well as Cassandra was to see her mother again.

Against impossible odds, Sam and Janet had found each other after seeing their respective lovers die, but if at first that was all they saw in one another, a chance to bring back to life a dead relationship, by now they knew each other for who they were, who they were made to be by everything that happened since their universes parted ways on the day that Samantha Carter lost her life in one universe, and Janet Fraiser in the other.

It was a strange balance of knowing they were the same and knowing they weren't, but one that they were used to navigating by now, even though under different circumstances. It was harder on her former friends, this version of her friends, they never seemed to know how to treat her, but she didn't think ill of them for it. She too struggled with the idea of seeing Sam alive again when they first met, in this same house, in a completely different place, her house in the other reality, built exactly like this one. She still wasn't entirely sure how this logic worked for places that hadn't been changed. Places weren't the same as people, and she didn't know if they could be considered the same across the realities. Janet would ask Sam that, but she feared that Sam would get lost in the question, trying to find an answer purely out of a desire to know, and it wasn't important, it wasn't something she should concern herself with.

The thing was, in their original relationships, they never had the opportunity to be domestic. Sam could come and go as Janet's best friend and Cassandra's godmother was supposed to, but she couldn't stay, she could never truly belong to Janet's space, regardless of what they wanted.

Then, when the two survivors, not widows on the technicality of never being able to marry their partners, met, there were two realities between them. Either one could live in the reality of the other, as there was only one version of them alive between the two universes, but none could give up their daughter, and none could give up on their duty.

When Janet had to leave everything behind, after Cassandra died and her Earth was destroyed, Sam had to hide Janet in her home, and Janet felt like a prisoner in her own home, even though that home wasn't exactly hers. That put a strain on the relationship, as well as the constant fear that they would be discovered, because they both had reason to fear great consequences would come of it.

Now, the consequences had come and gone, and they had survived together. So, of course things would change, this was the first opportunity they had to grow with each other nearly without fear, their relationship an open secret. Their closest friends and their daughter knew they were together, and that meant they didn't have to be careful not to slip, that they didn't have to keep the spare bedroom at all times as if Janet was living there.

Things weren't without their strains, things between them would never be that simple. Sam was still part of the Air Force, and that meant her career could be ruined if someone decided to blow the whistle on her relationship with Janet. Janet was still native to a different reality, having to deal with a type of grieve unlike anything any human ever experienced before, and there weren't many people she could talk about that to. Sam still went to other worlds, and with that came risks that lead to worries. Janet still wasn't allowed back to work in the SGC, and probably would never be, proving that higher up the chains there were people who didn't trust her, would never trust her.

Still, the change was for the better, and things were good. They were like newlyweds, trying to learn each other's habits and how to fit into them, or how to work around them at times. After all the heartbreak and pain, they deserved some happiness. It would never be perfect, it could never be perfect when the ghosts of their other selves lived between them, the memories of death never too far from their minds, but things were still good, better than they ever thought things could be.


End file.
